Homeland series one is a masterclass in high-wire tension

DVD review: Homeland season one is a masterclass in high-wire tension. See it now before the second season goes wobbly.

Homeland is undoubtedly the best drama on telly (Picture: lmkmedia.com)

Where have you been? Right now, your failure to answer basic questions about the most compelling new drama on television is simply suspect. From next month, any continued dinner-party ignorance becomes borderline treasonous.

Season two of this gut-churning thriller about a US war hero who may or may not have turned a little bit terrorist during his time as a hostage begins on Channel 4 on October 4. That gives you about three weeks to play catch-up. Luckily, this is more than enough time.

Slick, surprisingly sexy and just occasionally silly, the terrorist tango of Damien Lewis (all mumbly and mysterious) and Claire Danes (a paranoid CIA operative – yes!) makes for the most addictive drama since Jack Bauer was a nipper. Indeed, any comparison with 24’s best days is hardly accidental. Creators Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa – freely adapting a hit Israeli show – cut their teeth on the seminal counter-terrorism actioner and this taut dozen-episode run is basically ‘12’ – 24 without the ludicrous padding featuring mountain cats.

So far, this is a standard box set belter. But what really marks Homeland out as water-cooler TV is how fearless it is. Produced by HBO wannabe Showtime, Homeland has the requisite violence and sex but it also doesn’t shirk the politics or the religion. Halfway through, it rips up its own formula.

And above all, it makes brave and interesting character calls – Danes’s man-hungry, bipolar spy is the best female character on TV bar none.